Wild Essex scoops digital award

It’s been a good week. Wild Essex beat off hundreds of entrants at the Essex Digital Essex to walk away with one of the top prizes. We won the Silver Award – which means runner-up, I think – in the Website: Tourism & Hospitality category.

Getting nominated was our goal, so winning an award was beyond what we honestly expected; and a wonderful surprise. Although lots of hard work goes into our Wild Essex site, none of us are web designers… so perhaps it shows what can be achieved with lots of time on Youtube ‘how to’ videos, a wee bit of coding for idiots, and good content.

The hosts told us that a record number of ‘progressive’ businesses, schools and businesses had entered this year. I’m sure they said 900 entrants.

The event was held at Boreham House, near Chelmsford, on May 18. Lovely venue. A proper drive with a lily pond up the centre, longer and wider than a 100m running track. I’d never been before.

Former BBC broadcaster Robin Bailey hosted, and gave out the prizes. It was a nice touch interviewing each Gold winner on stage about their op’s and how they’d achieved so much success. Made for a proper evening; not the traditional boring ceremony of speeches and hand claps.

My wife and I were on the same table as the students from Plume – Maldon’s Community Academy. They collected Gold for best Moble App (below). We got a special tour of their phones! Capped off a perfect evening.

Young people and students will remain part of Wild Essex’s ongoing success. Seevic IT (Year 2) students worked on the site earlier this year to improve its SEO, mapping and social media access. We hope to do something together again in September, maybe to help take things to another level.

In case you’re wondering, this is the website that pipped us to the Gold prize: Complete Caterers, based in Colchester (below). It’s a lovely story and nice service. Wild Essex features businesses that source local food, so I’ll be tapas[ing] the owner Karen up to see where she gets her shellfish and veg.

Well done to everyone who won on the night. Because we heard lots of good stuff, here’s the entire Essex Digital Awards 2017 winners list:–